Marks, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marks, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Marks lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Marks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marks — the short answer
Marks, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 821 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Quitman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Quitman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Quitman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 821 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Quitman County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Marks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marks's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marks
Each reading below is measured for Marks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMarks runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Quitman County, the closest normal to Marks) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMarks sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Marks is in
Marks sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Quitman County.
What Grows in Marks
Every plant below cleared Marks's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marks?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Marks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUNGE NORTH AMERICA, INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- 119E0037 QUITMANNitrate · 700 ft
- 119E0032 QUITMANNitrate · 700 ft
- Delta Burial CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Kirby Wills PlantationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Holman's Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Marks City ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Moore's Union 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Junior FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Marks Pawn ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gurley's Day & NightUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Fred Hentz Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marks's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Marks.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Marks
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Marks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Marks
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marks average
Your land is one point inside Marks
Everything above resolves to Marks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 821 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Quitman County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Marks Average
Marks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Marks
- ●One soil character for all of Marks
- ●Frost dates read at Marks's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marks, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marks average
How we know this about Marks
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Quitman County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Marks
When does frost risk typically end in Marks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marks typically lands around Mar 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 22.
When is the first frost in Marks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marks typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marks sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 7, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marks?
The federal record around Marks shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Marks?
From about Oct 22 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marks's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marks's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Marks’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Marks's own scale — the 821 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marks, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marks's boundary and the 821 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marks's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Marks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Quitman County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marks's 821 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Quitman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Quitman County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Quitman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marks's 821 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 821 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Marks-wide figureread your own land →
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